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Experts now say it's okay to let your baby CIO. What will you do?

Parents Can Let Sleepless Babies Cry It Out: Study

"I remember sitting there in the dark, arguing with myself," Katherine Stone said of the nights several years ago when her baby simply would not go to sleep.

A women's health advocate and Babble blogger living in Atlanta, Ga.,
Stone hadn't slept through the night in months, and she was at her wits'
end.

"It's torture," she said. "It's like, 'When is this ever going to end?'"

Inevitably, she found herself uncertain about whether to let her baby cry.

"If I go in too soon, will she not learn to self-soothe?" Stone recalled
herself thinking. "If I go in too late, have I taught my baby that I'm
not reliable? It was a nightmare."

Stone's story is a familiar one among many new parents. Nearly half of
mothers with babies over six months of age report problems with their
baby's sleep.
This common problem not only leads to sleepless nights for parents, but
it also doubles the risk that moms will suffer from feelings of
depression.

Now, a new study released today in the journal Pediatrics suggests it is
OK to let babies cry while trying to fall asleep -- a finding that may
help settle a long-running debate among both parents and experts over
whether allowing a baby to cry itself to sleep harms the child in the
long run.

Australian researchers looked at 225 babies from seven months to 6 years
of age to compare the difference between parents who were trained in
sleep intervention techniques and those who were not. Specifically,
researchers allowed parents in the sleep intervention group to choose
one of two sleep training techniques to use with their baby. Parents who
chose "controlled crying" responded to their infant's cry at increasing
time intervals. Parents who chose "camping out," also called "adult
fading," sat with their infant until they fell asleep, removing
themselves earlier each night over three weeks.

Parents in the control group were not taught the sleep training techniques and instead provided their own routine care.

What the researchers found was that children and mothers in the sleep
training group had improved sleep, and the mothers were less likely to
experience depression and other emotional problems. These benefits
lasted up to the time the babies turned 2.

Moreover, the study looked at various factors to determine whether harm
was done to children in the sleep training group, including mental and
behavioral health, sleep quality, stress, and relationship with their
parents. They found no differences between children in the two groups,
leading researchers to conclude that these sleep training techniques are
safe to use.

"[P]arents can feel confident using, and health professionals can feel
confident offering, behavioral techniques such as controlled comforting
and camping out for managing infant sleep," the researchers write in the study.

Experts not involved with the study said the findings make sense.

"It's kind of like having the ability to get a rental car at the
airport, but why would you get one if a limo shows up?" said Dr. Ari
Brown, an Austin, Texas-based pediatrician and author of "Baby 411."
"The parent is the limo."

"While stressful for the infant, it almost certainly falls under the
'positive stress' heading," said Rahil D. Briggs, director of the
Healthy Steps program at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.
"Positive stress creates growth in the child, in the form of coping
skills and frustration tolerance that serve to be critically important
throughout the life span."

But for parents, the message may be even more important.

"This study empowers parents to be active in shaping their infant's
behavior to be consistent with appropriate developmental milestones,"
said Dr. John Walkup, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at
NY-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

After 11 months of nightly crying, Stone's daughter finally started to
sleep through the night. Stone says she was thankful -- but she said
that support from an expert would have been a welcome reassurance.

"Having that voice of authority from a pediatrician about what the right
practices are and knowing that they're backed by science, that can
bring you back from the point of freaking out," she said.

Um, hasn't it always been recommended to try and "OK"??? I always let my DS CIO when he was young. His pediatrician told me to check for hunger, being hot/cold/uncomfortable and if he wasn't to let it go. I learned his different cries and knew when he actually needed something. I never had "concerns" letting him CIO.

It depends on who you ask. LOL Some people believe in it and some do not.

Quoting Cara.MommyOf2:

Um, hasn't it always been recommended to try and "OK"??? I always let my DS CIO when he was young. His pediatrician told me to check for hunger, being hot/cold/uncomfortable and if he wasn't to let it go. I learned his different cries and knew when he actually needed something. I never had "concerns" letting him CIO.

I am not a fan of CIO when they are young. They are ripped out of a nice warm place and are used to being with you all the time and to just let them CIO seems a little cruel to me. Some people say it worked for them and that is fine. But I think for the first few months until they get used to their new environment it is just not right. I never let my son do it and he is a great night sleeper now. He only wakes up and cries if something is wrong, which is extremely rare, so I know something is wrong when he does that.

I never really had to CIO with my 1st and so far this one (2weeks) has been pretty chill. There were times where my 1st just needed to have a good cry and that is healthy. If they are dry, clean and fed and are still crying even when you are holding them then they just need a good cry.
Makenzi my 3 1/2 year old slept in her crib from night one and mostly put her self to sleep. I'd rock her to the point where she was almost asleep and ten put her down. The only time she cried for no reason really was when I took her bunk away at 9ish months. Mallorie my 2 week old is pretty much the same way. I do have to rock her a little longer, but I love it.

I CANNOT sit there and listen to my child scream and not do something about it, It seems cruel and wrong. I tried it with my DD when she was younger and I couldnt do it I felt horrible and It felt as though I was sending the message that Im not going to be there for her.

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